The combined awards total approximately $2.9 million to help eliminate blighted and abandoned homes in those communities.
The Blight Elimination Program provides opportunities for cities in all 92 Indiana counties to compete for funding to eliminate blighted, vacant and abandoned homes in an effort to decrease foreclosures.
“The Blight Elimination Program is allowing communities throughout Indiana to address long-standing problems with blighted and abandoned homes,” said Lt. Governor Sue Ellspermann. “This second round of funding provides an even larger impact, providing communities with an opportunity to obtain and remove structures that would otherwise continue to negatively impact neighborhoods.”
Fort Wayne was awarded an additional $2.8 million to acquire, demolish and facilitate an end use of 122 blighted residential structures.
“Cities across Indiana have been struggling with the damaging effects caused by vacant and blighted properties and will soon see the benefits of these federal funds,” said Sarah Bloom Raskin, Treasury Deputy Secretary. “Removing blighted properties is important in the fight to reduce foreclosures and we look forward to continuing our partnership with the State of Indiana to help stabilize hardest hit communities.”
The program has made a total of $75 million available for blight elimination.
